NBC Uses Pope to… Smear Catholics?

NBC chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel has launched a new “On Assignment” series where, purportedly, he “doesn’t just get the story, he goes to the center of it.”

Engel kicked off his show on April 14 with a report on how “ultra-conservative” Catholics are “taking aim” at Pope Francis, a “humble” priest who “reaches out” to the marginalized.

The report is pretty much what you’d expect from someone who spends most of their time on television talking with Rachel Maddow and Andrea Mitchell.

Without getting into all the details, Engel’s “investigation” was an attempt to thwart the increasing criticism inside and outside the Catholic Church of Pope Francis.

Now, why would an MSNBC correspondent come to the aid of the Catholic Church?

After all, Catholicism is opposed to gay marriage, abortion, transgenderism, and every other position liberals hold dear.

An elitist, Engel clearly senses that an increasing number of Catholics and pro-sovereignty politicians are fed up with the heterodox, open borders pontiff, and that if those sentiments spread, the anti-Christian world order the ruling class wants to usher in could be in jeopardy.

Francis is now the face of the global left and the last, best hope they have to stop the growth of nationalism across the West.

In essence, Francis is now the face of the global left and the last, best hope they have to stop the growth of nationalism across the West. Naturally, something has to be done to neutralize his opposition.

While granting some of Francis’s most vocal conservative critics a good chunk of airtime, Engel’s report is really just a hit job on Steve Bannon, whom he interviews at length about immigration and the Church’s sex abuse crisis.

His goal is to portray Bannon as a mean-spirited, Trumpian manipulator while depicting Francis as an open-minded, welcoming, and loving pastor.

Engel enlists the help of radical pro-LGBT priest Fr. James Martin, a close friend of liberal TV host Stephen Colbert, to help push his narrative. Martin tells Engel that Catholics who criticize Francis are, at root, just racist towards migrants.

Martin has previously argued that homosexual couples should kiss each other during the exchange of peace at Catholic masses.

Engel’s report is instructive in that it helps clarify, as if it’s not obvious, whose side the media is on.

It used to be that pedophile priests in the Catholic Church was the stuff of blockbuster movies and front-page stories (think the Boston Globe circa 2002). But now that the Pope is a liberal pushing many of the same policies as the political left, the media has said nary a word about the sex abuse crisis exposed by Italian Archbishop Carlo Viganò in August 2018.

Not only does the mainstream media recognize the danger anti-globalist attitudes pose to the Pope’s agenda, the Vatican does too.

From May 1-3, the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences is hosting a conference on nationalism and the nation-state.

The organization has previously welcomed Bernie Sanders, former California governor Jerry Brown, and population control activist Jeffrey Sachs to speak at its events. The current head of the academy, Bishop Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo, once claimed that China, yes, China, is “the best implementers of the Church’s social doctrine.”

Given Pope Francis’ “build bridges, not walls” attitude, it’s not hard to imagine the three-day gathering will invoke flowery language about helping the stranger and welcoming migrants while condemning xenophobia, fear of the other, and authoritarianism.

“The Catholic Church was — and it is — the only point of resistance to…the idea of a world-led government guided by technocratic elites.” – Riccardo Cascioli

Italian journalist Riccardo Cascioli, the director of La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, has argued that liberal, sustainability activists collaborating with the Church is really part of an infiltration effort aimed at placing “the great moral force that the Catholic Church undoubtedly exercises…at the service of the New World Order.”

“The Catholic Church was — and it is — the only point of resistance to… the idea of a world-led government guided by technocratic elites.” Cascioli said during an online conference on population control in October 2017.

The Church has fought long and hard against efforts launched by the United Nations to undermine the family and to impose gender ideology and abortion rights, he said.

“For this reason, the Catholic Church was a target.”

Cascioli is spot on in his remarks. So long as Pope Francis remains the head of the Catholic Church, international elites desirous of a borderless world will have an ally on the Throne of St. Peter. They’ll do everything in their power to destroy those who want to change that reality.

The only question now is whether or not more lay Catholics will stand up and, as Steve Bannon is doing, defend the Church from their efforts.

Stephen Kokx is the Assistant Director of Digital Marketing for LifeSiteNews' Catholic Edition. He has previously worked for the Archdiocese of Chicago's Office for Peace and Justice. A former community college instructor, Stephen has written and spoken extensively about Catholic social teaching. His essays have appeared in such outlets as The Remnant Newspaper, Crisis Magazine, Catholic News Agency, and CatholicVote.org. Most recently, he hosted “Church and State with Stephen Kokx,” a podcast featured on Magnificat Radio.